I found an interactive map of the Lincoln-Douglas Campaign of 1858. The Underground Classroom’s Virtual Field Trips also offers an interactive map of the Lincoln-Douglas Debates using Google Earth. Visual maps are a useful tool to demonstrate and analyze the significance of the Lincoln-Douglas debates. The maps are a perfect tool for your students to […]

Illinois During the Civil War database has a Teacher’s Tent that has a few lesson plans specifically on the legality of slavery. These lesson plans include standards, but I believe they’re only Illinois state standards. The Underground Railroad Digital Classroom also provides lesson plans for several levels and also includes standards.

I was reading Mark Neely’s The Boundaries of American Political Culture in the Civil War Era and thought the first chapter had a very interesting story that can be used to provoke discussion among students about politics of the 1864 presidential election in comparison to the politics of the 2008 presidential election. Neely tells the […]

On the Teaching Future Historians site there are several songs from the Antebellum and Civil War era songs that can be downloaded. The songs’ topics range from Tippecanoe to songs supporting (and not supporting) Lincoln. These songs can be used in a lesson reenacting political debates from this era. Several of them are very easy […]

I found on the Civil War Preservation Trust website an animated map of the first day of the Battle of Chancellorsville. The site also has a page geared towards teachers, but I found the animated map to be most interesting. I searched a little more for animated maps and found a few videos on Britannica […]

Kansas Historical Society has a very comprehensive site that categorizes major events in Kansas history into easily browsed sections. Some of the topics include Civil War and “Bleeding Kansas.” In addition to a search engine the website provides articles and images on the topic pages. This would be a good resource for an expansion on […]